


penguins and prejudice

by seventhstar



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Birds, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Penguin Katsuki Yuuri, Swan Victor Nikiforov, This Is Fine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 17:11:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16163270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seventhstar/pseuds/seventhstar
Summary: Viktor Nikiforov is a swan.Yuuri’s not surprised by this. In Hasetsu they still say your bird form reflects your human one, and Viktor is everything a swan is: beautiful, graceful, magical. His neck is perfection. When Viktor shifts, sometimes in the midst of a choreographic sequence and sometimes mid-jump, it always looks entirely natural. There’s no awkwardness, no ugly moment of half-swan, half human.“Swans are assholes that attack people. They’re just geese with good publicity.”“Shut up.”“I’m just saying,” Phichit says.





	penguins and prejudice

**Author's Note:**

> don't @ me this isn't my fault

Viktor Nikiforov is a swan.

Yuuri’s not surprised by this. In Hasetsu they still say your bird form reflects your human one, and Viktor is everything a swan is: beautiful, graceful, magical. His neck is perfection. When Viktor shifts, sometimes in the midst of a choreographic sequence and sometimes mid-jump, it always looks entirely natural. There’s no awkwardness, no ugly moment of half-swan, half human.

“Swans are assholes that attack people. They’re just geese with good publicity.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m just saying,” Phichit says. He sounds annoyed. Probably because they’re supposed to be watching a movie but Yuuri is in fact rereading last year’s list of celebrities who were hot in both human and swan form. Human Viktor was photographed shirtless, in spotless white pants; swan Viktor is swimming across a gleaming blue pool. Yuuri disagrees with most of this article, particularly the part where Viktor was number three and not number one, but the pictures are great. “Penguins are—”

“Nope.”

“Look, you could try—”

“Nope!”

Phichit turns into a turquoise-throated barbet. In bird form, just like human form, he is brightly colored and quick. Phichit’s bird form reflects his human one.

“Fine. Can we watch this movie?”

Yuuri nods. Phichit hits play, and the dulcet tones of Arthur, who in the anime adaption of the King and the Skater sings the opening theme, fill the room. They’ve watched the original movies, the TV show, the reboot of the TV show, the anime, and are now watching the anime movie. Sometimes Yuuri wonders if Phichit is a little too obsessed, but he never says it out loud. Phichit knows things.

 

* * *

 

“Katsuki! Wait!”

“Oh, Morooka…”

“Is it true you’re retiring?”

  
“I have to discuss that with my coach.”

“Don’t give up! You can still recover if you incorporate shifting on the ice!”

 

* * *

 

Yuuri does not shift on the ice. Yuuri hasn’t shifted since he left home, except for a few desperate occasions when it was snowing and he needed to escape.

 

* * *

 

“Yuuri! Come help shovel the snow!”

At the mention of snow, Yuuri leaps out of bed like a kid on his birthday. Hasetsu is hot in the summer and mild in the winter. It’s good weather for tourists. It’s good weather for retired old people. It is not penguin weather. He rushes down the hall, only slowing to accept the shovel from his dad, and hurls himself out into the snow.

The world grows as he shifts, going from a 173 cm man to a 122 cm bird. He waddles across the snow-covered path until he finds a snowdrift. He looks around to make sure no one is watching. And then Yuuri flops facefirst into the snow.

It feels so good.

_Ah,_ Yuuri thinks. _This is the life. Maybe Mom and Dad will get the minifreezer out again once the weather warms up._ He makes one of his weird, penguiny cries.

“Woof!”

“Squawk!”

“Woof!” An enormous wall of dog lands on top of him. Yuuri thrashes ineffectually as he’s licked furiously. It takes him several wet, confused seconds to remember he can, in fact, turn into a human. Yuuri concentrates hard on humanity—on legs instead of wings, on hair instead of feathers, of being able to walk at a speed faster than waddling—and feels his body change shape, expanding in every direction until the dog is less enormous and more just big.

“Vicchan….?” But Vicchan had been small even when Yuuri was a penguin chick. “Who…?”

Yuuri swallows heavily as the snow seeps through his clothes. He sits up and looks around, and notices a cab idling near the gate. A cab with an open trunk and a familiar set of luggage being pulled out of it. _Of course,_ Yuuri thinks wildly, _lots of people have designer luggage and brown poodles! It doesn’t mean anything!_

 

* * *

 

“Hello, Yuuri! I’m here to be your coach!”

Viktor has a swan tattoo over his left hip.

Yuuri is one hundred percent not ready for that knowledge.

 

* * *

 

“Is that a penguin?”

Naturally, within twenty four hours of Viktor arriving, Yuuri runs into him while shifted. He squawks in dismay, but there’s no escaping. Penguins can’t run.

“Oh, yeah. He’s the town mascot,” Mari says slyly. Yuuri is going to kill her. “You can pet him. He’s friendly.” He’s going to burn all her Takao merchandise on the lawn, and then kill her. “You can even pick him up.” Her body will never be found.

Viktor looks delighted. Yuuri resigns himself to humiliation as Viktor kneels down in front of him and pats him gently on the head. Probably a good nip would get rid of him, but Yuuri’s not going to bite Viktor Nikiforov, he’s not a monster. Unless maybe Viktor wants him to bite him. Yuuri could do that.

“Wow,” Viktor says. He looks way too excited about penguins. To Yuuri’s horror (and mild amazement because penguins are heavy) Viktor actually picks him up, like he’s a stuffed toy, and carries him over to a bench. Viktor sighs, like cuddling an oversized, flightless, ridiculous looking bird is the best thing. Yuuri has a lot of questions. “Amazing.”

Being hugged by Viktor is nice, though.

 

* * *

 

Yurio, of course, turns into a golden eagle. They kill deer, he brags. Of course when he shifts he’s large enough that he has problems getting lift, and though Yuuri doesn’t laugh out at the sight of an eagle slipping and falling on the ice, it’s a near thing.

Viktor laughs, though. His laugh is nice. Even if he sounds kind of like a goose.

 

* * *

 

“Does it have a name?”

“Huh?” Yuuri stops, mid-Eros. “What?”

“The penguin. Does it have a name?”

“No,” Yuuri says immediately. Then he regrets it, because Viktor looks like he’s going to think of a name. For a penguin. That’s actually Yuuri in disguise. The rink could burst into flames around him and it would still be less of a disaster than Yuuri’s current life. “It doesn’t need a name.”

“Of course it needs a name. Is it a boy or a girl?”

“…a boy.”

“Hmm.” Viktor taps his lip. “What are you, Yuuri?”

“What?” _I’m gay,_ Yuuri nearly says. “You mean my bird?”

“Yes. I’ve never seen you shift. It would add points to your program,” Viktor muses. “Why don’t you do that?”

“I…can’t shift well.”

“Do you need help? I can teach you.”

“No! I…I’ve had tutoring. It’s genetic. Sorry.”

“Oh, well.” Viktor smiles. “You have lots of other talents, so we’ll work on those instead! What’s a good name for a penguin?”

“Uh…”

“Pengu?”

“Pengu?”

“It’s cute! Like you are. Pengu. Do you think Makkachin would like him?”

“I have no idea,” Yuuri lies. Makkachin can tell it’s Yuuri. Good thing she can’t talk.

 

* * *

 

Being Pengu, Yuuri discovers quickly, mostly means listening.

He tries to avoid it at first, mostly because he’s worried about being caught, or overhearing something he shouldn’t. But before long he finds himself listening to Viktor’s rambling in Russian, while he sits quietly in Viktor’s lap and submits meekly to being cuddled. He’s basically a feathery Makkachin. It’s amazing.

 

* * *

 

“I brought you tea.”

“Oh, that’s all right.”

Viktor doesn’t like green tea. But Yuuri, armed with Pengu’s forbidden knowledge, has procured some tea he thinks Viktor will actually like. He thrusts the cup at Viktor.

“Try it,” he insists. “It’s new. I bought it for you.”

Viktor blushes. He accepts the cup.

“Is it good?”

“Horrible,” Viktor says. But he won’t give the cup back. He drinks the whole thing.

 

* * *

 

The pond near Yuuri’s house isn’t deep enough for a good swim.

But it is deep enough for Viktor to glide across, his feathers so white they glow in the moonlight. He swims around in the pond in what looks like an aimless pattern at first, before Yuuri realizes that it’s not aimless at all: it’s a dance, on water instead of ice.

He sits down in the grass at the edge of the water to watch. Viktor comes up to him once, to prod at his thigh with his beak to coax Yuuri in, but Yuuri refuses. He’d only look ridiculous.

 

* * *

 

 

“Hmm,” Viktor says.

Yuuri glances over. Viktor is making a miniature Eros costume. Yuuri’s pretty sure it’s penguin-sized.

 

* * *

 

“The thing is,” Viktor explains, “I can’t tell if he’s really interested or not.”

“Squawk.”

“He acts like maybe he is, but then he’ll pull away…”

“Squawk?”

“I don’t know why he said all those things to me if he didn’t mean them.” Viktor rests his head on Yuuri’s feather one. “I don’t know what he wants. Even when he’s close to me it’s like he’s distant! I don’t know what he’s so shy about. He didn’t have any problem stripping at the banquet.”

Yuuri nearly shifts back into his human form in shock. _What the fuck,_ he thinks. _Stripped? Stripped?! When did I strip?_

“Maybe it was just the champagne for him…but I like him now. I like his stubborn eyebrows, and how he never gives up, and the way he glares at broccoli, and he lets Makkachin sleep in his bed. His smile is like the sunrise.” Viktor sighs dramatically. “If he’s not going to date me he could at least let me die crushed between his thighs,” Viktor says.

“Squawk?!"

 

* * *

 

“Yuuri, let’s go eat ramen together!”

“I’m going home.”

 

* * *

 

“Yuuri, let’s take a bath together!”

“I’m tired.”

 

* * *

 

“Yuuri, do you want to—”

“Good night.”

 

* * *

 

The guilt is killing him.

Even since Yuuri heard Viktor’s confession, he’s been eaten up with it. Viktor never meant to say those things to him, but he did, and Yuuri really wants to tell him that he’s completely wrong, Yuuri is extremely in favor of dating and/or thigh crushing him, but that would involve the truth. Which will definitely kill any chance Yuuri has of dating Viktor ever. Thigh-crushing will  be out of the question.

Yuuri has, furtively, considered scenarios in which he acts on his feelings but says nothing about Pengu, but he can’t bring himself to do it. He can’t lie to Viktor more.

“I can’t take it,” Yuuri mutters, facedown in his pillow.

“Yuuri!”

“Hi…”

“Let’s go to the beach!”

“Okay…”

Yuuri allows Viktor to manhandle him to the beach. There, Makkachin frolics around for a while, before finally rejoining them where they’re sitting in the sand. It’s a little chilly; the sky and sea are grey. There are gulls in the distance; as one flies overhead, Viktor tilts his head back to watch.

“If I close my eyes,” Viktor says quietly, “it’s almost like I’m in St. Petersburg again.”

“When I was seven, I shifted for the first time.” Yuuri grips Makkachin firmly. “I was a late bloomer. I used to dream about what my bird form would be. Other people made fun of me, but I thought it was fun, until…”

Viktor looks at him; his eyes are soft. But he says nothing. He waits.

“After I started skating, I realized how bad it was. I even refused to compete for a while, because I was scared to shift. Even when I wasn’t skating, I wouldn’t…one time, I went to the zoo with some friends in Detroit. There was a shifting ground, you know, a big public one. A girl in my class was really pushy. She kept trying to get me to shift. Finally she turned into a robin and landed on me, and I knocked her off.”

“Why?”

“I just felt like she was intruding on my feelings. She couldn’t understand. That’s all.” Yuuri sucks in a breath. “My family’s always treated my shifting like it was fine. It’s just me who thinks it’s terrible, I guess. I’m too weak.”

“You’re not weak, Yuuri.” Viktor bites his lip. “You know, when I was younger, I hated being a swan.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Swans are just prettier geese. They’re cliche. I didn’t come to appreciate it until later.”

“Because you realized swan are beautiful?”

“Because I realized I could shift and attack the paparazzi. Did you know swans can bite? It’s great.”

“Uh…”

“Whatever your bird form is,” Viktor says, “I’m sure it’s perfect.”

“Oh…well…the thing is…” Yuuri gulps. Here’s his moment of truth, but Viktor is…leaning in. He’s very close. Makkachin has abandoned them. Yuuri feels Viktor’s hand on his hand. “Viktor…”

“Yuuri,” Viktor begins, “What do you want me to be to you? A father figure?”

“No!”

“A brother?”

“No!”

“A lover?”

This is the exact moment Yuuri should say something.

So of course, he panics and turns into a penguin.

“Pengu?”

_Run away,_ Yuuri thinks as he flees across the sand. _Run away…if I just get in the water I can swim to Australia…oh, god, I can’t run, I’m a penguin…why did I have to be a flightless bird?_

“Yuuri, wait! Come back!”

“Squawk!”

“Yuuri—” Viktor catches up to him within seconds and picks him up. The indignity of it make Yuuri turn back into a human…which leaves him still in Viktor’s arms, except now their faces are close and they both have lips.

“I’ve been a penguin this entire time and I’m sorry I lied about but I didn’t want you to know I was a penguin because it’s embarrassing!”

“But I love penguins!”

“You…do?”

“Of course! They’re the poodles of birds.” Viktor starts off towards the onsen. He has not put Yuuri down. Yuuri’s decided to not say anything about it, possibly to never speak ever again if he can swing it. “And what do you mean, it’s embarrassing? We can incorporate it into your routines. It’ll be nice and unique…”

 

* * *

 

**[STAMMI VICINO GPF 16-17 Yuuri Katsuki ft Viktor Nikiforov]**

3:24

Silver medalist Yuuri Katsuki’s EX at the GPF 2016-17 in Barcelona, featuring his coach and fiance Viktor Nikiforov.

**skatergirl4848**

ok but yuuri’s bellyflop and slide at 2:23…right into viktor’s arms…that lift…can u Believe

**victuuri4lyfe332**

this video cleared my skin, watered my crops, fed my family, ended global warming, restored the polar ice caps

**spookyhand**

But soft! What light through yonder ice rink breaks?

It is the east, and Yuuri and Viktor’s ring flares are the sun!

**nationalgayographic**

when will my penguin prince come tho

**Author's Note:**

> i promise to actually update things again soon, pls comment


End file.
